


Loki and Svaoilfari

by geekinlikeaboss



Series: Retellings [1]
Category: AU - Fandom, Frostiron - Fandom, Iron Man - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Marvel, Thor - Fandom, Tony Stark - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Other, POV, Retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 02:36:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1249591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geekinlikeaboss/pseuds/geekinlikeaboss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>See...this is what happens when i read Norse mythology and watch the Avengers at 2 am.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loki and Svaoilfari

Thor, pleasantly drunk, was not that unusual.

Loki, headed towards the bright side of tipsy, was a bit more rare.

But the two of them actually having a civil conversation was apparently earth shattering enough to bring the assemblage in for an impromptu game of Old Maid.

“Old maid?” Clint looked over the table at Tony. “Really?”

“What? Come on it’s the easiest game to learn and we have two definite out of towners.” He shrugged towards the brothers. Thor was smiling broadly at them all, deciphering the meaning of the game as Natasha explained it to him. Loki had that smug little grin on his face. Whether that meant he actually understood the purpose or was just happily drunk, Tony couldn’t quite figure out.

He hoped it was drunk. Their sex life got freaky when he was drunk.

And freaky for Loki was a whole new level.

As the game began to get going, the level of conversation different around the table. Someone mentioned Budapest and it did not escape him the way Clint and Natasha gave one another a sly grin. Bruce and he started gabbing about palladium reproduction and using it to power the nation…which of course nobody but the two of them really got.

But it should have been foreseen, that with two immortal gods in the room, the subject _would_ eventually come around to mythology.

_Thank Steve for kicking that one off._

“So…how much about you two is true anyhow?” He asked.

“How do you mean Rogers?” Thor turned to him, curious.

“Well…I found this book in the mansion library…” Steve held up a book of Norse mythology. A rather good one actually. Tony vaguely remembered buying at after he and Loki started...dating? Fucking? Date-fucking?

And if he remembered correctly this was one of the ones that didn’t gloss over all the details. _Oh that had to be interesting…_

Thor began laughing jovially. “I am afraid most of the stories Midgardians have come up with are greatly exaggerated…”

“Or just plain inaccurate.” Loki chuckled and took a long draught of ale. “Sorry Rogers. But most of the myths you’ve read are just that. Myths. Back in what you now call the Viking era, the Aesir were worshiped here, but we didn’t really come to Midgard that terribly often.”

“Unless it was for a tumble.” Thor nudged Loki and for a moment they looked like brothers again. Reminiscing over old debauched misadventures.

“You’d best not let Miss Foster hear you speak like that. They seem to take fidelity very seriously here.” Loki chided.

Thor nodded. “But if that is the price of her love then it is one I pay willingly.” He filled his cup again and laid back. “Still… not all the myths are complete falsehood. Father did battle the jotuns monst… army.” Thor switched back quickly and for a split second everyone went on the alert.

Loki heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. “Odin battled the jotuns here.” He said solidly. “If I remember correctly, he also impregnated a few of the women here as well.”

Tony caught Loki’s eye and smiled at him. _Well done lover._ A little bit of time. A little bit of distance. Scars never really healed, but they could become something you just accepted as a part of you eventually. Marks with stories to tell. Loki was getting better.

Thor pounded the table with sincere laughter. “That he did! Come to it so did you and I!”

 _Is he blushing? Is that little shit blushing?_ Tony leaned forward. “Oh now wait wait. I gotta hear about this!”

“Oh it’s nothing in particular. After the war of the Jotun’s here on Midgard, the worship…might have gone a bit to the ego of the Aesir. It became something of a fashion vogue for a few hundred years to have a litter of children with Midgardians.” Loki shrugged. “Apparently it was not exclusive to our group either. It seems to be a prevalent theme in all mythology.”

“I remember this one woman…from what you now call Finland. Big doe eyes, brown curls.” Thor licked his lips. “I think her name was Fanni. She sacrificed a white cow to me and begged me to give her father and brothers strength for the raiding season.” Thor grinned. “I came down, showed her to how wield an ax, and told her not to depend upon others to provide for her. She thanked me by bedding me for five nights.”

He looked too damn proud of himself not to say something to cull his ego. “So…you got her pregnant.”

Thor nodded, lips still in the cup. “She had a good strong boy. Passionate, a bit angry. But he did good. I kept my eye on him and ensured that he became a _jarl._ ” He clapped a hand on Loki’s shoulder. “Ah but my brother. Now he got himself into so many beds I don’t think the rest of us could keep up.”

_Okay now he is defiantly blushing!_

“Thor, it’s poor taste to talk of past lovers in front of current ones.” Loki reminded him. But Tony’s face and him look up shyly.

“Well you might have a couple centuries on me you sex-fiend. But I wasn’t exactly Mr. Chaste down here on poor meager Midgard.”

“You were a man-whore.” Natasha said straightly.

“The point being…” he shot her a look which she deflected with a batting of her long eyelashes. “That it’s kind of nice to hear you got into non-world domination trouble once in a while. Nothing wrong with an active libido.”

“As you well know.” Loki licked his lips and Tony prayed that he had remembered to go and buy lube.

Steve turned the color of beets and tried to hide behind his cards while Thor just started laughing and rubbing his hand through his long gold locks. “Brother, my preferences and you’re may not coincide but I do believe you have finally found your match!”

“I like to think I have.” There was an affection to his tone as he looked across the table at Tony that would have actually made the man lose his balance off the chair if there hadn’t been other people present.

“And that is truly saying something, all things considered.” The blond god sat back in his chair. “Rogers, you wished to know what if any is true in that book of yours. Have you looked upon the name Svaoilfari?”

Loki’s grin dropped in a second and his eyes went wide. He gave Thor the most loathsome of glares but the man was too deep in his cups to see it.

“Uh Thor, this sounds like a bad topic.” Bruce had caught the change in the air too.

“I…uh…” Poor Steve. He suddenly seemed terribly guilty ridden. Of course that right there said plainly that he had seen the name and knew exactly what Thor was about to get into.

“What people forget. Is that if it were not for my brother, Asgard would have no bridge defending it. Were it not by his clever craft and guile…and yes by his trickery, we would have been laid open to the nine realms.” Thor looked over at Loki who nodded, obviously trying to end this conversation as soon as possible. But Thor, too eager to finally shed a kinder light on his brother’s perceived dark past, barreled on through. “So there was this giant…”

“I think…what they are more curious about…” Loki’s voice was edgy, and he was no longer looking Tony in the eye. “…is the horse.”

“The horse comes later.” Thor said dismissively.

“Well that’s what I heard anyway…” Clint couldn’t resist jabbing in there.

The Thunderer looked at his friend and suddenly seemed to sober up. “Do not mock his trials.” He said shortly.

“He doesn’t need to you’re doing a damn good job of it on your own.” Loki snapped.

_Oh shit._

“I do not!” Thor turned to face Loki and everything went on high alert as the two god children faced one another. “What you did was done for Asgard. It was a noble sacrifice…”

“That resulted in me being called a horse-whore for the better part of a century!” Loki spat back at him. “A sacrifice that need not have happened at all if you had not been such a damn glory-hound!”

“Someone had to kill [Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs)! He was threatening to take Freya by force!” Thor defended.

“That’s not the point and you know it you insufferable oafish bastard!”

Tony crossed the table in two strides and grabbed Loki’s arm. Bruce had his hand on Thor’s, his color just a touch above pale jade. “Come on guys. Just a friendly card game.” He said smoothly, trying to hold tempers down.

“Oh of course. Just a friendly little game between brothers.” His tone held that mischievous quality and Tony just prayed that there wouldn’t be too big of a mess to clean up in the morning. Green magic sparked from Loki’s black nails and snapped to the cards. “Well then. Don’t let me keep you all from having fun!”

There was a flash and the cards went flying in every direction, now suddenly hard enough to drive themselves straight into the marble walls and ceiling. Tony realized he was grasping empty air and Loki had disappeared. “Shit.”

***

Loki always kept magical wards on his rooms, no matter where he stayed. There were mostly keyed to people, and always specifically set against Thor for some reason. Tony could tell the thundering god had been by here at least three times as marked by the three holes in the wall where his frustration at not being allowed to apologize had gotten the better of him.

Tony sighed and knocked on the door. “Mind if I…?”

The door swung open.

“I believe one of the promises you forced on me was that I was not allowed to bar you from my life.” Loki said in forced calmness as he sat looking out the window.

“Maybe I’m asking if you want me in here. Not just if I can come in?”

The trickster shrugged. “I know you want to ask me. I know you want me to trust you with this.” He said softly. “If you want to know the story you only need ask to borrow Roger’s book.”

He was trying to deflect and avoid this. And Tony was half tempted to let him. “I’ve read it. I mean like the whole thing. So I already know the overview. You don’t exactly get painted in a favorable light.”

“It’s the nature of mythology Anthony. People aren’t interested in the truth. The truth…is long and complex and all grey area. Absolutes teach better lessons and give humanity a moral compass by which to be guided.”

“Is that why you became the god of lies and deception?” He prodded.

A lonely smile. “People like lies. Lies help keep painful truths at bay. Deception only happens when people don’t want to see past the illusion.”

“So what does that make you?”

“You know me better than anyone Anthony.”

“So…what’s the real story? From your side.”

“You could ask Thor. He will tell it more favorably…or at least try to.”

“I don’t want his version. I want to hear yours.”

Loki turned a little. “I do not want you to think ill of me again.”

“I know the worst of it by now.” Tony shrugged. “I’m not under any deceit about who or what you are Loki. I’m aware of who I’m dealing with. I just want you to trust me with the things that actually hurt _you_ to think about.”

He was silent for a long moment, those green eyes just so full of hurt and old memories that Tony wanted to hug him till it went away. But Loki’s body language told him very clearly that he didn’t want to be touched right now.

The final sigh told him that story time was about to begin. “I was much younger then…much more innocent…or at least innocent for me. And very eager to please the man I though was my father. Back then it wasn’t about thrones or kingdoms. I just wanted to look at me the way he looked at my brother.” Loki sat back against the window sill. “Thor was everything a young Asgardian man was supposed to be. Bold, brash, full of fire and passion. It was no surprise that people rallied to his side. No surprise that everyone assumed he would be next in line for the throne. Even though Mjolnir had not yet selected him as a worthy barer, Odin looked at him with such favor…”

He steadies himself and continued. “At any rate the trouble started when the All-Father realized there would be an oncoming attack on Midgard from the Joutunhiem army. Laufey was planning to retake the land and slaves he had lost many centuries ago. But at the time, the forces had been smaller and easier to transport. My moth… Frigga foresaw that this time it was an all or nothing assault. Asgard did not have a bridge.. So we were open to large attacks. The All-Father decided that while Laufey was plotting his advance, he would fortify Asgard. A contract was put out to whoever could build the bridge and the walls the fastest.”

“Eventually, [Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) came around. He was a half breed jotun, but huge. Obviously took after his father in that regard. Odin was not pleased, but such was [Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) reputation as a brilliant builder than he allowed him to give his bid to Asgard.”

“And he asked for Frigga and Freya as his wife?”

Loki actually chuckled. “You should have seen the look on Odin’s face! Much less Freya’s!” He covered his face and grinned. “You have realize what a magnificent insult that was! The sheer arrogance…! Well at any rate Odin was all set to destroy him right then. But Frigga…she pushed me forward. She told me this was my chance to use my wits. ‘ _[Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) is the best builder in all Nine Realms. We need his skill for a sufficient bridge.’ _ I promised the All-Father that I could make this work. That it would be worth it. He looked doubtful, but nodded.”

“I felt as though my chance had come. I was so thrilled, Anthony!” He looked at his lover with a little bit of light in his eyes. “I planned it so naturally. I proposed a toast and got [Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) flat out drunk and boasting. Convinced him that he should surpass all his other bridges by building one of rainbow and starlight! But more than, I convinced him to say that he could do it in a years time. Oh how high I rode that night! Frigga was so proud of me. Father was proud of me. He called me the most clever of the Aesir and…” Loki stopped talking and squeezed his fist up against his mouth. “He called me his clever little Loki.”

Tony could do nothing but sit there listening. What did you say to that. From all descriptions, Odin had not exactly been the most attentive of fathers. Probably not the most affectionate either. _Boy can I relate._

“And that’s when it all started going to shit.” Loki continued. “[Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) had a massive horse, Svaoilfari. You should have seen him, Anthony. Huge! Positively gigantic even by Asgardian standards. He was the color of storm clouds on the horizon and had hooves like anvils.” His hands gestured charismatically and he was suddenly aware of the subtext. “I’m getting a little odd at the moment, aren’t I?”

“Little bit.” Tony said easily. “But…I asked for the truth…”

Loki scrunched his nose. “At any rate, he was completing the bridge much faster than we could have anticipated. Frigga claimed not to be worried, but I could see her fears. Freya was positively aghast. She begged me to do something. And say what you will of my but when a curvy brunette with bedroom eyes and soft hands begs you for a favor you do not say no.”

“I came up with another plan to lure Svaoilfari away from his duties. I would use my powers, become a mare in heat and let the stallion catch hold of my scent. He would buck and challenge his owner to follow me. [Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) would know it was a trick and demand to be given his wives as due. He would threaten the house of Odin and Thor would be standing near by to kill him.”

“Wait…wait…your plan…was to commit cold blooded murder because this Herrmy guy was actually making _good_ on his end of the deal?” Tony shook his head. “Geez and I thought I had to deal with sharks in the board room.”

“He was going to ravage my mother and Freya, Anthony. My options were fairly limited. At any rate, magic takes time. I could not simply create the illusion of a mare. Svaoilfari would have smelt the trickery and would care as little for it as he would for a bit of wind. So I became the mare. I made myself a black, prancing thing with a high gait and the scent of musk about her to entrance him. And it worked. Svaoilfari saw me and his male need to rut took over. He threw his reigns and I lead him off into the forest.” He threw his hands up. “It should have gone perfectly! [Hrimthurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrimthurs) did just what we thought and Thor of course had to behead him out of self-defense. But the stupid, glory hogging oaf just could not _resist_ going back to Asgard to receive his accolades!”

“So what happened?”

“Thor was supposed to be waiting for me to return. I couldn’t just snap my fingers and be myself again. My transformation was a three day process. I needed Thor to reign the stallion in once I lead him back. I ran through rivers and over mountains to try and loose that damned horse!” Loki gave a dry chuckle. “But in the end I lost my endurance. Thor was not there to pull the horse back, and when Svaoilfari caught up with me…I reacted as a mare in heat does react to a stallion in rut. I gave over to the most basically animal nature.”

 _What do you even say to that?_ Sometimes, tony followed the best advice in his head and simply said nothing.

“When I realized I was pregnant of course, I knew I could not become myself again for some time. I could not have birthed otherwise. I had thought to birth my shame out in the deep forests of Asgard and leave it there. Returning to my family with some excuse for my tardiness. But do you want to know the truly twisted thing, Tony?” Loki turned to him with a sad desperation. “I was happy there. I was happy wandering the deep woods with Svaoilfari for the better part of a year. Everything was calm…placid. There was no expectation but our muzzles against one another and the gnawing of grass. I had no worries, no fears. No desire to impress. And for a time I…I think I may have been simply a horse.”

“But it came to an end soon after Sleipnir was born. We were eating in the meadows when a scouting party came over the ridge. I did not know them at first but, I recognized Frigga quickly enough. As they spoke I remembered human speech. I listened and learned that she had been searching for me for over a year now, refusing to give up. I waited till nightfall and approached the campgrounds when she was out on her own. She knew me for her son of course. I do not think I have ever once been able to trick her, no matter how well-crafted the illusion.” Loki said bitterly. “She dismissed the rest of the hunting party and I took the time I needed to transform back to who I was. I remembered everything then. How it had all gone wrong. I was furious with Thor. I was so livid and angry I swore to crack his head on a rock when we returned! Frigga told me it was pointless as the rock would snap before Thor’s head did.”

“Probably true.”

Loki nodded. “I strove to keep everything quiet, but an eight legged dappled foal isn’t something that goes unnoticed. People figured it out quickly enough. I was still a prince of Asgard. So no one had the gumption to say it to my face. But the rumors came around and it did reach my ears. The looks. The whispers. The laughter.” Loki looked so pained and alone there that Tony came closer and sat next to them. “And god the ideas people came up with! They acted as though I just laid down in human form and took it! How would that even work! Do you have any idea how large a horse is? And even if I had how would I then have possibly gotten pregnant from it?”

Tony wrapped arms around him and kissed his neck softly. “People are stupid…apparently even on Asgard.”

Loki nodded his agreement. “Thor found out. I suppose I should give him that much credit. When he heard the mockery in a tavern one night he started cracking skulls together and things died off pretty soon. But Odin…” Loki bit his lower lip. “Anthony he would not look at me for the longest time. He nodded to me and addressed me much as he would have a guard or some random noble. I had shamed him. Even with the best of intentions I had shamed him.”

“I don’t get how you ‘shamed him’. I mean grated it probably wasn’t the proudest moment. But…it sounds like Thor was right. What you did, you did for Asgard. To protect your family.”

Loki laughed a little sadly. “You sound like my mother.” He mused.

“I will take that as the highest compliment.” Tony moved closer. For a while they sat in silence. After all, what else was there to tell. It had happened so long ago. It wasn’t as though anything could be changed. No amount of ‘sorry’ or ‘oh how sad’ would ever make it right. Still, after a while, Tony kissed Loki’s forehead. “Look, I know this was hard for you to share. So thanks for that. But I want to know the rest.”

“I have told you all of this that there is Anthony.” Loki said curiously.

“All of this story. But there are a ton of myths about you.” Tony grinned. “If nothing else, at least one poor mortal should know the tales from the bad guys point of view. So how’s about it stud? Let’s make Story Time with Loki regular deal.”

He seemed shocked for a moment, then grinned. “Fine. But I will only speak when I am ready and willing. Not just because you’re bored and you want to get off on debauched tales of my youthful indiscretion.”

“Deal.”


End file.
